Four Tons of Floating Weed Discovered Off Dana Point

Presumably this is unrelated to the arrival of Japanese tsunami debris along the California coastline that we've all been hearing about. But at about noon yesterday, a boater who either really hates marijuana or really loves obeying the law, called authorities to report several large bales of weed floating in the ocean about 13 miles offshore from Dana Point. Agencies ranging from the Orange County Sheriff's Department to the Coast Guard and Border Patrol sent their boats to confiscate the haul.

According to the Orange County Register, the bales numbered about 180 and totaled just over 8,000 pounds, and a Border Patrol spokesman estimated its street value worth at about $4 million. No arrests were made in the seizure, and where the weed came from remains a mystery, although Mexico seems the obvious culprit. It's just a wild guess, but it seems that whoever was paid to smuggle the weed got jumpy when whoever was supposed to rendezvous with them failed to show up quickly enough, so they just dumped the load.

Award-winning investigative journalist Nick Schou is managing editor of OC Weekly. He is the author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (Nation Books 2006), which provided the basis for the 2014 Focus Features release starring Jeremy Renner and the L.A. Times-bestseller Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’s Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, (Thomas Dunne 2009). He is also the author of The Weed Runners (2013) and Spooked: How the CIA Manipulates the Media and Hoodwinks Hollywood (2016).